The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for routing inbound voice and video calls to agents in a call center environment.
It is known that a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) or an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) can route inbound voice calls from consumers to the agents in a call center environment.
To improve efficiency, it is sometimes advantageous to divide all the agents in a call center into several groups. A group of agents, also known as a split, is defined as one or more agents doing similar work or having common skills or attributes. An administrative procedure is initiated to configure groups' (or splits') definitions, so that the PBX/ACD can manage the groups (or splits) based on the definitions. Agents with a common work or skill or attribute set usually log into a split (or a group), before they are ready to take calls. When an inbound call centers the PBS/ACD, it can be routed to a group of agents (or an agent) based on characteristics, such as: the telephone number dialed by a customer, the customer's telephone number identification, the time of the day called, etc.
While conventional call centers can route either voice or video calls, they are unable to route both voice and video calls to a same group of agents. Under such a limitation, a conventional call center capable of processing both voice and video calls has to divide its agents into at least two groups, one handling voice calls and the other handling video calls. This arrangement can be wasteful of human resources and facilities in a call center. For example, an inbound voice call has to wait for service if all the agents in the voice groups are busy, even when some agents in the video group are available. By the same token, an inbound video call has to wait for service if all the agents in the video group are busy, even when some agents in the voice group are available.
Thus, to efficiently use the agents and facilities available in a call center to handle inbound calls, there exists a need to provide improved apparatus and method that are capable of routing both voice and video calls to the agents in a single group.
Furthermore, to enhance compatibility with existing call center technology, and reduce the cost to upgrade existing call centers, there exists another need to provide improved apparatus and method that are capable of routing both voice and video calls to the agents in a single group without imposing undue modification on the existing call center technology.
The present invention provides improved apparatus and method to meet these needs.